The spoken word translates neatly into the written in this posthumous collection of microessays from National Public Radio commentator Stern (Making Shapely Fiction, not reviewed, etc.). Two or three minutes of radio airtime equals about the same number of written pages, which would normally seem too constricted for a personal essay. It turns out to be just enough, however, for Stern to create his artful prose miniatures: say, to cover a topic like the social ritual of the dessert cart's temptations; to relate an anecdote of brazen cafeteria line-jumping or a reminiscence of school ``hobby day''; or to play out the conceit of an existential airline's announcement: ``Remain comfortably seated, for this trip may be your first or your last, or one of the many trips you will take so . . .'' These ``radios'' (as opposed to ``papers'') are rooted in the everyday, with Stern favoring his memories of family dynamics (``Reading the Refrigerator''), his experiences of teaching and being taught (``Looking for Mr. Keats''), and the close scrutiny of kitchen appliances, such as ice trays and rotisseries. Stern conjures up arrestingly small details, such as the changing fashions of Christmas tree lights or the brand of highlighter (the ``Personalizer'') used to mark the targets for radiation therapy on his body. Stern's ongoing mysterious illness punctuates this miscellany like a mildly cliff-hanging radio serial while he recounts testing, diagnosis, and treatment. Throughout, Stern keeps his ear tuned for good dialogue, even one of his nurses discussing the life expectancy of her kids' pet fish; and his mind is always primed for an artful turn of phrase—undergoing chemotherapy, he describes the radiation machine's sound as ``the sizzling crackle of a patio bug zapper.'' Pleasantly diverting observations on passing life, ideal for short-attention-span meditations. (drawings by author, not seen)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-393-04119-0
Page Count: 171
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1997
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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